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Rewritable DNA for digital data storage (page 2)

Scientists have found a way to create rewritable digital data storage in DNA through means similar to binary coding. The researchers worked to reapply natural enzymes adapted from bacteria to flip specific genetic sequences of DNA back and forth at will. The scientists, who all work in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University Medical Center, said their method essentially works like that of binary computer coding. "Essentially, if the DNA section points in one direction, it's a zero. If it points the other way, it's a one," graduate student Pakpoom Subsoontorn said in a press release. Assistant professor Dr. Drew Endy said that programmable data storage within the DNA of living cells could potentially be a powerful tool for studying cancer, aging, and organismal development. The scientists could count how many times a cell divides, which could someday gives researchers the ability to turn off cells before they turn cancerous. Their work is known as recombinase-mediated DNA inversion, which